Update~!
I hadn't realized that I was one turn away from the Mizuho exit of Gaoracchia forest when I saved. I went the right way by accident, found Mizuho, and was at last granted the chance to see the mystical village of ninjas! Colette dumped Regal (who I'd beaten by this time, sorry for not mentioning that) and the group as a whole made it clear that he was our prisoner and had best not try anything funny. Then Zelos came up with the excellent idea of having "pops" fight for us. Being the good man he is, Regal agreed and swore not to betray us. The new party of 8 (Oh yeah, guess who's got every available character now?! -dances-) made their merry way to the chief's house.
Please tell me I'm not the only one who played with the flipping wall repeatedly...? xD
I went in by the wall, my party sat down in various states of sprawling, and we had a nice long talk with Tiga. It was decided we'd join with Mizuho and they immediately dispatched a number of people to find our Rheairds. We up and hauled it to Ozette right after after, (I got lost again) and discovered the horror of Presea's home. There was no talking to her after that, so we got directions from a little girl to the "bearded man"'s house and were rudely turned away by the old coot. Tabatha apologized on his behalf before instructing us to go inhibitor ore hunting in the Toize mine.
The funny thing about life is that you can never find something when you need it. I'd already stumbled on the entrance to Toize Valley Mine before and so figured it would not be difficult to find again.
=____= It was, the dang thing took me like...5 minutes to find. I ran into the Lightning temple a few times and kept sliding under Exire. (I didn't know what it was the first time I saw it, finding out was quite exciting.) I managed to find the entrance...eventually, and we engaged in a thrilling battle against the door and it's many defense systems. I've never fought such an amusing "enemy" before.
I didn't have much of a bone to pick with the slowness of the mine's machines, having a longer span of patience than some people. The only thing that bugged me was how to get across to the correct tunnel and still have the Sorcerer's Ring spitting out mana bombs. (Needless to say, I figured it out shortly thereafter.)
(I'll post the rest later.)
-some hours later-
RIGHT, where was I? Let's see, we were in Toize mine and I'd figured out what to do to blow up the boulder in the next tunnel. I rode the pulley...thing across and blew up another boulder, much joy. I messed around in the next room, found an irritating Gnomelette (who is never getting potion if I can help it), and stumbled across the bridge! I liked that rickety old thing, it was kinda neat walking past the waterfall. Regal showed us the boxes and, as luck would have it, I blew up every box available until finding the one with inhibitor ore. Why does it always work out like that...?
Mmkay, so we got the ore, Lloyd carved an acceptable charm to serve in place of a keycrest, and we booked it to Ozette. Presea came to meet us, followed by that despicable Rodyle. She helped him take Colette away and Lloyd, instead of getting angry, attached the makeshift crest without any sign of ill will. She regained her senses in an instant and who should show up but Kratos?!
I confess, I love seeing him show up. Love it.
He told us Rodyle had acted outside of Cruxis order's (Translation: do whatever you want with him) and that Colette was useless to the organization the way she was now. Who here knows why~? Gimme a show of hands people!
-scans- Yup, and that's...everybody. Wow.
Okay! So, Kratos tipped us off that the Mizuho folk had likely found the Rheairds by now and lit off without so much as a "goodbye". Aaah, but such is his nature. Presea said she'd like to help us rescue Colette since it was her fault the blonde had been taken in the first place. Regal wanted to continue staying with us too, so Lloyd welcomed them both back and we made haste to Mizuho. I'm proud to say that I did NOT get lost this time.
Back in LIttle Japan (like Little China, but different. Geddit? GEDDIT?!) Tiga told us that the network had indeed unearthed the rheairds; but in order for the vehicles to work, we needed Volt's mana. I'd been inside the temple before and it looked really neat, so I was eager to explore it again. A trip in the EC (and about five skits) later, we landed on the island bearing the temple. I ran in and almost immediately got electrocuted by that middle lightning rod. Raine's cryptic hint helped me figure out how NOT to get shocked but my stoopid brain didn't apply it to the furthermost left rod. It was a good few hours later that I figured out how to get to the sorcerer's ring pedestal (I explored much of the temple in the meantime) and went about happily destroying blue blocks.
Now, let's see...I eventually (with Ryan's help) managed to get to the yellow pedestal (not without shocking myself again) and made my rounds, this time destroying yellow blocks. I remembered the yellow block wall (which I now know is a puzzle) and ran up and down the levels, destroying blocks all the way! I left, came back, more blocks. I can't remember when or how I learned it was a puzzle, I just know the walkthrough I had open (teh netbook was sitting near me) was no good. I found out through the use of another guide that I had to guide some ball of electricity through the pipes resting on each set of blocks. To do that, I had to lower one lightning rod and raise another. I got the correct one raised and then couldn't find the other one. I spent another 2 or so hours looking and still couldn't find it.
So I'm a bit stuck, with one last block to destroy on Volt's seal. With any luck, and I can solve the puzzle tonight and get that pact!
Did I forget to mention that sometimes it's fun to throw myself off the ledge in the lightning rooms? Seeing Lloyd come flying headfirst out of the chute is just so funny.
